Live rock for me or no?

Most of the liverock collected is actually rock that has already been broken off the main reef by storms, etc. Does your dad burn fossil fuels? Does he buy produce or meat from grocery stores? Has your dad ever littered(more specifically with plastic)? People doing those things has a much greater effect on reefs than the wild collecting of fish, rocks and coral for the aquarium trade (unfourtanetly there's not a lot we can do about it at this point in time).

Also, there's many places/people who make aquacultured live rock. What they do is place a (relitively) small amount of live rock in a container with a larger amount of manmade/ "dead" rock then leave it for months so that the bacterias, algaes, micro inverts will transfer to the "dead" rock. Some people also place the "dead" rock in the ocean to brew instead of a land based operation. If you haven't figured it out yet, you can also make you own live rock out of "dead" rock using a similar process inside your tank, meaning.

It's rarely recomended that you do not include atleast some live rock in your system - it helps with filtration/ water quality immensely (and can be the only filtration for a SW aquarium). There's nothing wrong with doing a mix of fake and "live" stuff, if you would like to do that. Usually you'll want to use 1-2 pounds of live rock per gallon or a mix of live and "dead" rock giving you a similar ratio of rock to water.

As for the corals ane nem's, well the nems can be pretty much forgotenn with a tank that small (most get to big and there care is not even close to being easy - small water volume complicates that even more) and corals - don't get them unless you've done prior research on the care of these creatures and are prepared to share out the nesisary cash for purchasing them, the lights and the nessisary additives.

As for scrubbing the fake stuff - don't (this applies to both FW and SW). Unless the algae on it is one of the ubnoxious types- it's only doing good. The fish can eat it (resulting in better health), it's only removing a nutrient(s) which is in excess and a tank free of algae is nothing like the naural enviroment the fish would be found in.

I've got a five, ten, twenty, twenty five and a twenty nine. The twenty nine is my reef, the rest are freshwater. I've been considering switching the five to salt, but it may just end up being a fuge to a fifty five sometime after christmas and I'm not sure I would be satisfied with such a small marine setup.

Cleanup crews are gennerally a good idea, but are they absolutely nessisary? no. However, they may/will prove to be a vital part in combating certain noxious algaes, and them breaking down any missed food is also a plus.